User blog comment:ForrestFighter/Discussion of Triss(book)- First Essay/@comment-1298206-20130609042916

You do bring up a good point with how Kurda was defeated by Triss. I have several possibilities that might explain it. As you have stated, Kurda's morale was at the breaking point after having seen the Ratguards and the Freebooters defeated. As you said, while she had little to no practice battling with an armed beast, she still was capable of battling an ordinary foe, but it is likely that the sight of the vengeful Triss wielding the Sword of Martin terrified her.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Triss wanted to kill Kurda more than anything and was fighting with all of her strength and skill, but in defense of Kurda, she would be doing the same to save herself. To be fair, the fight ended when Kurda's saber broke, which might have to do with the saber's durability compared to the star metal from which the Sword of Martin was forged.

As for the whole entrance to Brockhall, it is possible that the serpents didn't hear them experimenting with the greenstone because they were asleep or something like that.

As for how the deaths of Zassaliss, Sesstra, and Harsasscss were anticlimactic, they had less room to navigate and didn't have the element of surprise so they couldn't ambush their enemies, but I agree with you for the most part. The adders were still as deadly as ever and they were dealing with inexperienced fighters.

Don't forget that Drufo was first and foremost Rocc Arrem's closest friend and, in addition to being very close to Triss, also represented a great deal of things she had learned about her father and how now she lost that, but he was the closest thing she had to family, as well.

About the whole thing with Sagaxus, I remember in one book, it said something about two male badgers cannot comfortably live under the same roof together. It might have been in Mossflower or Lord Brocktree.

Plugg Firetail is one of my favorite characters in the series! He isn't overly ruthless or comical, but serves as a nice medium!